asterisk8 said:

I still have to ask, why is that sort of convoluted logic easier to believe than just that each film is a unique take on the concept of zombie apocalypse?

I don't think it's convoluted at all.

I think "DOTD" both in Romero's intention and the audience's expectations was a sequal to the extremely successful "NOTLD."

I agree with everything you say about the time settings of both films. "Night" is set in 1969, and "Dawn" is plainly set a decade later, but the story implies they happen near eachother. I simply say that at the time, and even now, mostly no one cared about that discrepency.

This was 20 years before every genre film was automatically assumed to be part of a trilogy. I think the time discrepancy is just a non-issue.